Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating
Do you find yourself eating mindlessly or shoving cookies into your mouth every chance you get? According to Judith J. Wurtman, author of The Serotonin Power Diet, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here, she offers her opinions and tips on how to eat to turn off your hunger.
Q: What role does serotonin play in how and what we eat?
A: It plays an extremely important role. The most important and overlooked thing is that serotonin will shut off your appetite. When it’s working properly, it makes you feel satisfied. You can eat less food than you would like to eat, and you can decrease your portion sizes if you need to lose weight, but triggering serotonin will make you feel full. My co-author, Nina T. Frusztajer, and I use this example all the time: You go to a restaurant for dinner, and you’re very hungry, and while you’re waiting for dinner to be served, you munch on some bread and a little salad. Twenty minutes go by before your dinner arrives and when it finally does you say, “Gee, I’m not hungry anymore.” It’s not from the roll or the bit of lettuce, it’s because once you digested those carbohydrates your brain makes new serotonin and sends a message that you’re not that hungry. It’s a natural appetite suppressant.
Continue reading Connection Between Serotonin and Appetite: How to Suppress Cravings